Skipping Out of Heaven, the Second
by Trollmela
Summary: AU of 5.19 Hammer of the Gods. Balthazar decides to skip out of Heaven early. On earth, he comes across Gabriel confronting Lucifer and decides to intervene.


**Skipping Out of Heaven****, the Second**

_Disclaimer: _None of the characters are mine. I do not profit from this story.  
><em>Characters<em>_: _Balthazar, Lucifer, Gabriel  
><em>Rating: <em>PG  
><em>Warnings: <em>none  
><em>Spoilers: <em>season 6  
><em>Beta:<em> webbswoman _- Thank you, my friend, for your great patience and your thorough work!_

_Summary: _AU of 5.19 Hammer of the Gods. Balthazar decides to skip out of Heaven early. On earth, he comes across Gabriel confronting Lucifer and decides to intervene.

_Note: _Before you go looking for a first part, the title is "the Second" because Gabriel was the first angel to 'skip out of Heaven'. I'm not counting Anna because she became human, while both Gabriel and Balthazar left Heaven without any intention of becoming human. So this makes Balthazar the second angel to sneak out.

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><p>"You know Castiel best, don't you? You know his habits, the way he thinks…everything." Zachariah smiled. "You'll find him for us."<p>

"Of course," Balthazar nodded.

But it was a lie. He knew Castiel. Cassie wouldn't overthrow all of Heaven's rules for nothing. He had already hinted at some of his suspicions to Balthazar and the angel had reason to believe him. He wouldn't go to earth to find Cas and bring him to Heaven or to kill him; he'd go down there to find Cas and find out the truth.

Zachariah, smug grin still in place, flitted off. Balthazar decided to take one last look around Heaven. He may have been too late to save Castiel earlier but he'd make up for it now. When he went down on earth, he would take whatever knowledge and intelligence he could find with him.

How was he supposed to resist when he found the weapons of Heaven guarded by what was practically a fledgling?

When he went to earth, he tucked in his wings, put up speed and finally sent out such a violent lash of grace that every angel in Heaven had to feel it and believe that he was dead.

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><p>For an angel, leaving Heaven isn't easy but it's even harder – pretty much impossible in fact – for Heaven to leave an angel. Gabriel had turned his back on his brothers millennia ago but that didn't mean that he was ignorant to what was going on. Angels were aware of each other's presence and conversations at all times unless an angel made a conscious effort to remain hidden. Gabriel had done that for himself but it was harder to block out his brothers' and sisters' voices from reaching him.<p>

He had never considered ripping out his grace, a rather brutal but effective method of cutting ties with Heaven. Okay, perhaps he had thought of it once or twice when he was really, really drunk, in his early years of posing as a pagan god; back when he had still been caught between hating the constant buzz of his siblings in his mind which he hadn't yet been able to suppress and feeling lonely because he wasn't with them. But he had never considered it seriously. Because without his grace he'd be human and who would honestly want that?

The many centuries had been a constant up and down for him. Sometimes he decided to listen in on the other angels, sometimes he locked them away tightly and stewed in the subsequent silence.

Since the apocalypse, however, he had been keeping an ear out constantly for the latest news. Mostly, he told himself, so that he knew which places to avoid so he wouldn't run into anyone who might recognize him. But it was also entertaining to listen to Zachariah being driven mad by the Winchesters. Sometimes he found himself almost relating to the other angel but he liked to think that his methods had more class. Beyond the entertainment, bugging the angel phone line didn't give him much.

He was perfectly happy with not interfering. Until he heard that the weapons of Heaven had been stolen. That was the moment he decided to do more than watch, wait and listen. He searched for them, thinking that at least some of the weapons he should be able to detect easily as he had wielded them himself once.

But it proved to be too late. A group of pagan gods including Kali and Baldur met up in a hotel, luring the Winchesters to them with bad weather and a warm place to sleep. They didn't even realize that trapping Lucifer was the worst idea they had ever had in their stupid little heads. Even if it wasn't Lucifer who had stolen the weapons – which was a possibility – he was still more than the gods could handle. So Gabriel was forced to act without knowing what he was getting into.

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><p>"Brother, don't make me do this."<p>

"No one makes us do anything," Gabriel replied.

"An angel after my own heart," another voice commented.

Gabriel's head jerked up; Lucifer turned his head to see the intruder. The truth was that, caught up by each other's presence, neither had noticed the newcomer's arrival. Gabriel frowned.

"I know you," he said.

The newcomer – an angel – smirked. "I'm flattered, really. But how about we do introductions later?"

"Did Michael send you to save his brother? One little angel against me?" Lucifer asked, unimpressed.

"Mike? Oh no. He doesn't even know I have a little something of his either…" The angel held up a small statue. "I heard you were allergic to this?"

Lucifer's expression lost some of its coolness. Gabriel didn't even think of hiding his astonishment. So that was where they had gone.

"Is that the Statue of David?" The fallen archangel demanded.

"Is it?" The angel studied the statue in his hand as if he had never taken a closer look at it before. "I don't know, I haven't looked through everything yet that I filched from Heaven and I've never been the studying type. But probably, yes. Let's try it out, shall we?"

Gabriel barely had the time to cover his eyes. Lucifer's true voice shattered the windows of the entire hotel and the light was so bright that even angels would have had trouble looking at it. When Gabriel lowered his arm, Lucifer was gone and only Gabriel and the other angel were left. He looked satisfied with his success and his stance was cocky. If he was nervous about having just faced down the devil, he didn't show it.

"Nice trick but it won't be long until he comes back," Gabriel warned.

"Then I suggest we'd better get out of here."

"We need to find the Winchesters."

The other angel made a dismissive gesture. "Forget the Winchesters. They're safe." His tone made it clear that he didn't really care either way.

"You're doing this for Castiel," Gabriel realized. "You're Balthazar."

"Ah, so you really do remember my name. Thought you might have forgotten it in one of your orgies while playing pagan."

Gabriel gave him a black look. He never forgot anything; not even when he tried.

Balthazar spread his wings and took flight. Gabriel followed him and after a few turns around the globe and no evidence of Lucifer following them, they set down in Indonesia.

"So, what else did you steal from Heaven?" Gabriel asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"I stole a _lot_ of things." Balthazar looked smug.

"I can't really see Cas telling you to do that. All righteous and honorable little angel that he is, his unsanitary attachment to Deano notwithstanding."

"Oh, he didn't. Admittedly, the footsteps I'm following, they're his. Tearing up the whole script and burning the pages," Balthazar laughed. "This is utter and complete freedom! But that's nothing new for you of course."

Gabriel gave an insincere grin. "Now what?"

"Well, I don't know about you but I'm still looking for Cassie."

"Then you're on our side now? Preventing the apocalypse?"

"Let's get one thing straight: I don't care about the monkeys. All I care about is Cas. And I'll do what I can to help him."

"Even stealing the weapons of Heaven."

Balthazar shrugged. "It wasn't that hard. Disappointing, really."

"Michael and the others will be looking for them. If only to make sure that they haven't fallen into my dear brother's hands."

"They won't be looking for me. I'm dead as far as they're concerned. And somehow I don't think Luci will be calling Mike to complain about me."

"Those weapons will be useful yet. Very useful," Gabriel said.

Balthazar grinned widely. "That's what I thought."

Gabriel snapped his fingers to make a bottle of tequila and two glasses appeared.

"Let's make a deal," he said. "Your loyalty is obviously to Castiel, and Castiel's is to the Winchesters. And like them, I want to stop the apocalypse, and our chances have just risen from zero to, oh, not that bad after all." Gabriel set one of the glasses down in front of Balthazar and poured the tequila. "We'll need all hands on deck, so how about I go to the Winchesters before they watch my little movie and have a freak-out and while we work on the Horsemen, you go look for Castiel and bring him to us once you've found him."

"Sounds good," Balthazar agreed.

They clinked glasses, with Heaven none the wiser that two angels had just formed an unholy alliance.

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><p><em>Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it. Reviews are loved.<em>

_**UPDATE:** __**As of December 2011 there's a sequel called **Put the Apocalypse On Hold**. You can find it on this site by clicking on my profile. **  
><em>


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